For the first time, the Nexus has a hero to call its own. Announced yesterday at BlizzCon 2018 for their popular MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, Orphea is the first hero in the game to be born directly from the Nexus, and being the daughter of the mighty Raven Lord has some benefits. However, Orphea takes on the emotions of rebellious teenager, rejecting her father’s gifts, and fighting for her own purpose. Orphea joins a who’s who of well known heroes from the Blizzard Universe, and she may have a tough time finding her footing in such a star-studded cast. To further explore this, we went hands on with Orphea in the HOTS Demo at BlizzCon 2018.
First thing to know is that Orphea is a Ranged Assassin, which means that she deals high amount of spell damage from afar, but her health leaves something to be desired. With that in mind, we tried to play safe with her, striking at a distance while the teams engaged. Her abilities are frightening if she is left unchecked, as her Hero Trait, Overflowing Chaos, gives her three attack stacks. Once she has them, her attack strength increases by 50% percent per stack, and healing for 100% of the damage dealt.
Onto her abilities, the first being Shadow Waltz, where a purple whip attacks in a straight line for 133 damage. In addition, its cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds and returns 25 mana to Orphea. Her second ability, Chomp, is her short range crowd control. If any enemies do get close to her, she can use this to cause 285 damage to anyone it touches. Her third ability, Dread, is without a doubt one of the best range attacks we’ve ever seen in the Nexus. Once used, Orphea releases a wave of darkness that damages anything in its way for 85 damage, but once it reaches its destination, it explodes and deals 175 damage and slows everybody hit by 25% for 2 seconds.
Now we come to her Heroics, the Heroes Ultimate Ability. Like the others, Orphea has two, with the first one being Eternal Feast, which is a giant Area of Affect attack that hits anyone for 210 damage. The unique thing about this attack is that it starts over every one second for each hero hit. However, this attack is easily avoided and if no hero is hit, it ends rather quickly. Her second Heroic, Crushing Jaws, is a much more devastating ability. Once used, it pulls enemies to the center of its casting area, dealing 275 damage, and stunning them for 0.75 seconds. That might not sound like much, but if a team is behind you ready to dive, whoever is in the center will not survive.
After playing Orphea for a few matches, we’re not concerned with her inclusion in Heroes of the Storm. Orphea will be a most welcome addition, as she’s already captured the hearts of fans here at BlizzCon, and she’ll soon be capturing everyone’s at home. Orphea will be a free hero for everyone attending BlizzCon, and everyone who owns the Virtual Ticket. You can check out her gameplay trailer here: